Grizzlies season could be doomed if they don’t improve one particular area
By Mark Nilon
Coming into the 2023-24 season, the Memphis Grizzlies seem to have one of the more well-rounded rosters in the entire association.
From their top-flight star power consisting of Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane, and, once he returns from suspension, Ja Morant to their bevy of high-class key commodities in Marcus Smart, Steven Adams, and Luke Kennard (just to name a few), coach Taylor Jenkins will have plenty of quality talents at his disposal to run out onto the hardwood and create truly menacing lineups.
However, despite this undeniable fact, Memphis seems to have one glaring disadvantage that could seriously hinder its chances of reaching its full potential.
At least, that’s what the folks at Bleacher Report seem to believe, as writer Zach Buckley recently penned a piece claiming that the club’s lack of trusty shooters runs the risk of dooming this highly polarizing Grizzlies offense.
Grizzlies offense could be doomed due to a lack of shooters at their disposal
Despite boasting the 11-best offensive rating in the entire league a season ago, Memphis was the eighth-worst long-range shooting team as they cashed in on a pedestrian 35.1 percent of their attempts.
Buckley believes that this could come back to seriously bite them during the upcoming campaign, especially considering they didn’t do all that much to improve their shooting arsenal during this past offseason.
"“Last season, the Grizzlies built a winning formula around defensive dominance, rebounding and transition attacks. When they couldn’t get out in the open floor, though, Memphis lost its mojo. In half-court sets, the Grizzlies had the league’s ninth-worst scoring rate at just 96.9 points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass,” Buckley wrote.“Their main issue was a general lack of shooting. They had bottom-half conversion rates from every level, shooting just 47.5 percent from the field (16th), 35.1 percent from range (23rd) and 73.3 percent at the line (30th).”"
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1639444946062127104
Though Buckley may believe things to be rather bleak in the shooting department for the Grizzlies, they still find themselves coming into the year with several quality shooters at their disposal what with Bane (career 42.5 percent long-range shooter), Jackson Jr. (35.2 percent), and Kennard (43.7 percent) leading the charge.
Still, even with these individuals, perhaps GM Zach Kleiman and company should strongly consider adding one or two extra snipers to their arsenal before training camp wraps, just to be safe.
